Dating The Lord’s Birth

I was reading an article about the star that lead to Bethlehem. This article claimed Jesus was born around 7 to 5 B.C or around that time. I always thought

A

Luke 2:1-2 says the census that required Joseph and Mary to travel to Bethlehem took pace while Quirinius was governor of Syria. He served 2 terms, from 6-4 BC and 6-9 AD. Herod the Great, who ordered all the baby boys in Bethlehem killed (causing the Holy family to flee to Egypt) died in 4 BC. This makes Quirinius’ first term the most likely time of the Lord’s birth.

The BC/AD dating system was not developed until 525 AD and even then was not widely used until after 800 AD. My research indicates there wasn’t any legitimate effort to connect it to the actual time of the Lord’s birth.

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Jack Kelley published over 9,000 Bible Study resources here from 1999, until the Lord called him home in the fall of 2015. His teachings made the Bible clear and easy to understand, and impacted millions of lives. He is the author of all the teachings here, and all materials are available free of charge! His wife Samantha maintains this site as well as their missionary outreaches.